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Selma Bouvier
Selma Bouvier ( ) is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, voiced by Julie Kavner.The Simpsons "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" - December 17, 1989 She is Marge Simpson's older sister and the older twin of Patty Bouvier, who works at the Springfield Department of Motor Vehicles, and possesses a strong dislike for their brother-in-law, Homer. Selma is the elder by two minutes, and longs for male companionship. Kavner voices her as a character who "suck the life out of everything".[http://www.snpp.com/other/articles/flash.html Rhodes, Joe. "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves"], TV Guide October 21, 2000, via The Simpsons Archive: "Matt Groening says: 'My original idea about Marge's family was they were utterly joyless. The original note I gave to Julie was that they suck the life out of everything they see'". Distinguishing features Although the two have a similar look, there are several easy ways to distinguish them. Notable differences include: *''Hairstyle'': Patty has a puffy perm, while Selma's similarly textured hair is parted in the middle to form an "M". *''Outfit'': Patty wears a short-sleeved pink dress and pink shoes while Selma wears a hemmed sleeveless blue dress and blue shoes. *''Earrings'': Patty wears orange or blue triangular earrings while Selma wears purple or orange circular earrings (and, in earlier episodes, earrings shaped in an "S"). *''Necklace'': Patty wears orange or blue spherical necklace pearls while Selma wears purple or orange spheroid-shaped necklace pearls. In the episode "The Blue and the Gray", it is revealed that Selma is actually a blonde, while Patty is a redhead. Their blue-grey tinged hair is due to cigarette smoke and ash. Biography Rarely seen apart from her sister Patty, Selma is known for her distinctive gravelly voice, cynical outlook on life, and love of cigarettes. They share an apartment at the Spinster City apartment complex and both work at the DMV. The two are avid, sometimes maniacal fans of the TV series, MacGyver. When Jay Sherman, on advice from Homer, told them MacGyver was gay, they stripped him to his boxers and hung him from the gutters.The Simpsons - "A Star is Burns" Prior to Selma's marriage with Sideshow Bob, he insulted MacGyver and the wedding was almost cancelled as a result.The Simpsons. "Black Widower" They once got to meet Richard Dean Anderson (the actor who played the title character) and wound up kidnapping him.The Simpsons - "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore" The two seem to be aroused by the character, taking cigarettes after every viewing of the show. Patty and Selma often bring back long dull slide shows from their vacations and other activities, including a visit to Czechoslovakia The Simpsons. "Flaming Moe's" and a pillowcase full of seashells from their trip to Sulfur Bay for them and the family to clean and organize;The Simpsons. "Treehouse of Horror VI" They drove away Richard Dean Anderson by showing him slides of their trip to the Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston, Alberta. Patty and Selma have a strong, mutually reciprocated dislike for their brother-in-law Homer. They regret that Marge chose Homer over her former boyfriend Artie Ziff,The Simpsons - "The Way We Was" and have unsuccessfully tried to help Artie win her back.The Simpsons - "Half-Decent Proposal"The Simpsons - "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" However, Marge made it clear to her sisters that she loves Homer and there's nothing they can do to change her mind. Homer usually tries to be polite to them out of respect for Marge, but Patty and Selma do not hide their contempt for him. They showed little concern when Homer suffered a heart attack and while he was undergoing surgery they tried to set Marge up with a sleazy man named Andre.The Simpsons. "Homer's Triple Bypass" They own a tombstone inscribed with the epitaph "Homer J. Simpson. We are richer for having lost him" and use it as a coffee table,The Simpsons - "Mother Simpson" stick pins in a voodoo doll which looks like Homer''The Simpsons'' - "Homer and Apu" and even commissioned a billboard urging voters to evict Homer from Springfield.The Simpsons - "Three Gays of the Condo" Patty and Selma once kidnapped Homer and imprisoned him in a cellar in the hope that Marge would find someone else. Moved to tears by his obvious devotion to Marge, they let him go.The Simpsons - "Wedding for Disaster" When Homer contemplated suicide, they encouraged him to go through with it and then pushed him off the bridge.The Simpsons - "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" They have also given stoner Otto Mann a driver's license due to their mutual dislike for Homer,The Simpsons. "The Otto Show" and deliberately failed Homer on his limousine driver's test.The Simpsons. "Homer vs. Patty and Selma" For his part, Homer regards them as the "Gruesome Twosome"The Simpsons - "Krusty Gets Busted" and was delighted when he (mistakenly) heard they had died.The Simpsons - "American History X-cellent" As children, Patty and Selma were apparently domineering towards Marge and ridiculed her ambition of becoming an astronaut. In return for their allowance, Marge used to do chores for them. The free time they now had led to them taking up smoking.The Simpsons - "Three Men and a Comic Book" As adults, the Bouvier twins have a friendly relationship with their sister and seem very protective of her and thus frequently visit the Simpsons. They seem relatively fond of their nieces and nephew, but seem to like them more when they are young, as one of them remarks "The older they get, the cuter they ain't."The Simpsons - "Lisa's First Word" On occasions, they babysit Bart, Lisa and Maggie, something not relished by the kids. Bart and Lisa were left traumatized when they had to stay with their aunts for a week while a stressed out Marge left for Rancho Relaxo. Maggie managed to take evasive action and got to stay with Homer instead.The Simpsons - "Homer Alone" Their idea of bonding with Lisa includes tutoring her in the belief that men are pigs, using Homer as the prime example, which disgusts her as he is her father and despite his not paying attention to her, Lisa knows Homer loves her. Selma Bouvier Selma Bouvier is two minutes older than Patty. Due to a childhood bottle rocket accident, she has no sense of taste or smell.The Simpsons- "Black Widower" According to Marge, Selma "likes Police Academy movies and Hummel figurines, and walking through the park on clear autumn days." In contrast to her twin, Selma yearns for male companionship and children. She is also slightly more sympathetic towards Homer than Patty. Selma helped reunite Homer and Marge after seeing how upset Marge was without him, despite an agreement with Patty not to say anything.The Simpsons - "I Married Marge" He was sympathetic to her when she broke down after a disastrous trip to Duff Gardens with Bart and Lisa, remarking "I just couldn't cut it today", referring to raising kids. Homer also agreed to pose as Selma's husband to help her adopt a baby from China.The Simpsons - "Goo Goo Gai Pan" Also, Selma has admitted privately to Marge that the only reason she insults Homer so much is because she has been jealous of her for finding such a steady long-term companionship and happy family much quicker than her. Unable to find companionship in a man, Selma has also sought to have children. At one point she considered using a sperm donor. After babysitting Bart and Lisa for a day, she realized she was not ready to have children and wound up adopting Jub-Jub, her Aunt Gladys's pet iguana.The Simpsons. "Selma's Choice"According to a The Simpsons DVD commentary and by episode writer O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien Much later, she adopted a Chinese baby, Ling. During the adoption process, Selma pretended to be married to Homer, since the Chinese government only allows children to be adopted by married couples."In the Family Way", The Next Big Thing, 10 October 2003. Julia Sweeney tells about the messages she received from Chinese adoption agencies trying to confirm her heterosexuality due to government opposition to gay adoption When the fraud was exposed, Selma managed to keep the baby, as a Chinese dignitary (voiced by Lucy Liu) who had also been raised by a single parent became sympathetic. Relationships Despite being identical twins, Patty and Selma have very different track records when it comes to finding dates. According to Marge, Patty chose a life of celibacy, while Selma had celibacy thrust upon her. Her standards are extremely low, as evidenced by her comments on Mr. Burns: "Single, eh? Well, he passes the Selma Test." Selma has actively sought out a husband, and has been married to six different men. Her current name has evolved into Selma Bouvier-Terwilliger-Hutz-McClure-Stu-Simpson-D'Amico. Her first marriage, to Robert "Sideshow Bob" Terwilliger, ended when his plan to kill her was foiled by Bart. After an off-screen marriage to Lionel Hutz,The Simpsons "Much Apu About Nothing" she began dating Troy McClure. They married, but she soon discovered it was just a sham to boost his flagging career. She told him she was unwilling to bring a baby into a loveless marriage and broke it off.The Simpsons. "A Fish Called Selma" Another unseen marriage was to Disco Stu,The Simpsons. "There's Something About Marrying" which was annulled by the Pope. For a time she dated Abe Simpson, to the horror of Homer and Patty. Despite their objections, the two got married, but came to realize it would not work due to his age and her job, so they called it quits.The Simpsons"Rome-old and Juli-eh" Her most recent husband is Fat Tony, though he was already married and regarded Selma as his "Goomar".The Simpsons. "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony" It has been implied that Selma had a second failed marriage to Sideshow Bob, giving her a total of seven marriages. One person Selma refused to marry was Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, because she said her collection of last names was long enough. However, there is evidence that she slept with Apu after Homer and Marge's second wedding. Selma has also dated various other men around Springfield, among them Hans Moleman, Moe Szyslak,The Simpsons. "'Scuse Me While I Miss The Sky" and pitifully, Barney Gumble. She was rejected by Groundskeeper Willie, who upon seeing her dating video remarked "Back to the Loch with you Nessie". Character Creation Series creator Matt Groening said he suggested that Kavner voice Patty and Selma as characters who "suck the life out of everything...." Al Jean said Kavner makes Patty's voice more masculine and a lower register, while Selma's voice is a little sweeter. Development In the 2005 episode "There's Something About Marrying" of the sixteenth season, Patty was revealed to be a lesbian and became the first openly gay recurring character in the series. Groening has stated that the staff wanted to out Patty as gay because portraying her as a "love-starved spinster ... seemed old" on the show. There had previously been hints about Patty's orientation. For example, in the season thirteen episode "Jaws Wired Shut" she is part of the Springfield Gay Pride Parade's "stayin' in the closet" float, though only her voice was heard and she was not seen. According to the publications Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture and Value War: Public Opinion and the Politics of Gay Rights, it was the controversial lesbian outing of the main character (played by Ellen DeGeneres) in the sitcom Ellen in 1997 that paved the way for Patty's coming-out in "There's Something About Marrying", as well as for many other gay characters on other television shows. In his book Queers in American Popular Culture, Jim Elledge noted that it is possible the Simpsons staff chose Patty to come out as gay instead of a male character because lesbians were "traditionally considered more acceptable" on television. She did, however, not "adhere to the eroticized male lesbian fantasy or fit into the loveable, asexual guise of the comedy lesbian" that had previously been seen on shows such as Ellen. Instead, Patty is "rude, crude, and not ashamed of declaring her sexual preferences", and this could make her unpalatable to some viewers according to Elledge. It was reported a long time in advance of the episode's airing in 2005 that a major character would come out as gay during the episode. There was a widespread debate among fans of the series as to who the character would be. Patty was suspected by many fans and the press because she had not often been seen dating men on the show. The tabloid newspaper The Sun revealed already in September 2004 that character who would come out was Patty, though this was regarded as a rumor and The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean would not confirm it. Bookmakers in the United States and the United Kingdom took bets on which character would be uncovered as homosexual—BetUS laid odds at four to five that it was Patty, while Smithers had four to one odds and Ned Flanders fifteen to one odds. BetUS said gamblers made more than 900 bets on the coming-out on their website. According to The Baltimore Sun, another bookmaker Paddy Power "stopped taking wagers because so much money was being placed on Patty." See also * Bouvier family References External links * The Simpsons Archive: The Patty and Selma File * Category:The Simpsons characters Category:Animated human characters Category:Female animated characters Category:Fictional French-Americans Category:Fictional civil servants Category:Fictional twins Category:Fictional_smokers Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1989